Microsoft to give us a “sneak peek” at the future of Windows Phone in two weeks

Last month Microsoft announced that they were going to hold an event dubbed the “Windows Phone Developer Summit” on June 20th. We weren’t given any information as to what was going to be discussed at the event, but now some new details have recently surfaced. According to The Verge, Microsoft plans on giving developers a “sneak peek” at “the future of Windows Phone” during this summit. Apollo, the next version of Windows Phone, wasn’t mentioned, but sources who spoke to The Verge say that developers can expect to learn several “new ways of creating apps” for Microsoft’s mobile operating system. Knowing how Microsoft does their announcements, they’ll probably offer a very high level overview of what we can expect to see in Windows Phone 8, but they’re going to keep their cards close to their chest until later this year. All we want to know about is what’s Microsoft’s response to the confusion regarding Windows Phone 7.5 updates? Multiple sources have said today’s Windows Phones will not get 8.0 Apollo, but Microsoft has yet to say anything on the record.

This month we’re also going to hear about the next version of iOS at WWDC and the next version of Android at Google I/O, so here’s hoping that Microsoft has something amazing up their sleeve. Nokia, Microsoft’s closest partner, is going to hold their own event called “Nokia World”, though it’s taking place in September. Whereas before Nokia World used to be one large shindig, it’s now going to be split into several smaller events. Details about said events haven’t been fully revealed yet. Could Microsoft announce Windows Phone 8 at one of Nokia’s events? That would make Samsung and HTC quite uneasy.

So what do we know about Windows Phone 8 so far? Not much, other than rumors that it’ll finally add support for all the fancy things (720p screens, dual core processors, NFC) that Android devices have had for a while now.

I would like to see in WP8: call timer, data counter, bigger phone numbers in contacts, ability to increase font in sms, email & contacts, usb mass storage mode, skype app that can work in background. Basic things in general. Of course I’ll appreciate all the things Stefan mentioned above.